Thursday, June 20, 2013

Hamilton, MT

On the Road Again!

You know those horror movies, where the house is just sucking the people in, and they're too stupid to realize it? It was kinda that way in Missoula: a very open warmshowers house, with fascinating people, and no assignment other than to get well. Complacency sets in, and bang! before you know it, five years have gone by.

But I escaped! Well, I took time to do laundry first, so the house grabbed me for the morning. But the clock struck thirteen - er, one - and I was out the door.

The Bitterroot Valley is beautiful, and it was even more so today. The entire distance to Hamilton, I was dodging cloudbursts that could be seen from miles away. Or rather, they were dodging me. My timing just happened to be such that I was hit by only a few sprinkles. I didn't mind that a bit. The wind came from all directions, depending on how close those cloudbursts were, but that didn't matter much, because the way was flat and the path was smooth.

Hay! Ski Montana!

Storm clouds over Victor

There's a bicycle path beside Highway 93 all the way from Lolo to a little south of Hamilton. It is absolutely fantastic to ride without having to worry about how close the cars are and whether some errant (or mischievious) driver will stray onto the shoulder. And much quieter, as well. It's surprising how much noise attenuation even a 25-foot separation provides. And for much of the distance, it was more like 50-100 feet.

Thistles beside the bikepath

Stormy weather

I could get addicted to this warmshowers stuff. I'm in another warmshowers house tonight, with the most friendly Siamese cat I have ever seen. She's just a huge affection sponge. Whereas the Missoula warmshowers house seemed to have a revolving door for cyclists, Tim and Cassie take in maybe 15 in a season. I'm lucky to be one of them. Cassie was just returning from a bike ride as I finished my supper (leftover Quiznos sub from noon - hard life), and I'll meet Tim in the morning, when he returns from his graveyard shift as an ER nurse.

I finally caught up with you! What a great adventure. Your route is bringing back great bike racing and rock-n-roll memories for me. One of my favorite all time stage races is in Baker City. And I played several gigs at Jay's Upstairs in Missoula - is it still there? I'm sure you hung out for some live music while you were resting. :-)

Sorry, Marty, Jay's Upstairs disappeared ten years ago. See http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay's_Upstairs for a little more info.

The warmshowers house I stayed in is a jazz house. Bruce, the owner, as well as several other residents, plays jazz piano. He used to host regular monthly shindigs at his house, but now most of his free time is spent with his nine-year-old son, who is a bicycle racer (see Missoula #6) and has ADHD. Bruce used to be married to Eden Atwood, who has some little renown in and beyond the Missoula area as a jazz singer. My only musical adventure in Missoula was confined to hearing Bruce and other house members do some riffs on the keyboard.

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Map Notes

Unfortunately, the mobile version of Blogger does not permit the placement of photos within the text, nor titling of the photos. You will just have to guess which photos go with what text.

You can see a Google Maps route map associated with a daily post by clicking on the first link (up there in the from-to text). However, note that Google Maps on Android does not permit the customization of maps, so these maps do not reflect the route I actually took: they show only what Google Maps thinks is an appropriate bike route between the starting and ending spots.

The real routes are provided in the TransAmerica Trail maps published by the Adventure Cycling Association, information from which is used here by their kind permission. You can, of course, use these Google Maps as a starting point for planning your own trip. But keep in mind that the Google Maps routes do not always coincide with the TransAmerica Trail maps, and of course do not show all the extras that are included on those maps. I strongly recommend that you purchase the Adventure Cycling maps. They contain much more detailed information about the routes, and include history, points of interest, lodging/camping information, and emergency contacts for the areas through which you will be passing.

About Me

After forty years bustin' my butt as a computer programmer, I up and quit. What comes after retirement? Read my blogs and find out.
Note that, unless you know me personally, they will bore you silly. And if you do know me personally, it won't be much better.